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Introduction

Submitted by Darkmind on Sat, 11/23/2013 - 21:01

I really didn’t mean to become a supervillian.

I didn’t even really think of myself as a villian per se. I just was a guy with a crush… Well, ok, it was a bit of an obsession. Two obsessions, really. The ﬁrst was with how the mind works, not just psychology, but the actual physiology of thought. The second was with my next-door neighbor.

Let me paint a picture. Me, a loner nerd. I did well at work, and was paid fairly well. Never mind with what; beyond that it involved electrical engineering, and not the brain. That was a hobby. I wasn’t management material, but I was well-respected in my group. No, there weren’t any women in that group. There were a couple in the oﬃce building where I worked, I think. It was kinda hard to tell.

I own a standard house in a standard suburb. Nothing major, but nothing modest. BMW in the garage. Not quite on the end of the cul-de-sac.

The house next door is. I’m their only adjacent neighbor: There’s ‘greenspace’ on the other side. A small woods.

Living there is a single woman. I had some general idea that she worked from home. Obviously did well: Her house is a bit nicer than mine. Swimming pool. A small fence around the lot. A bit bigger.

As for the owner herself… She was always kind and helpful, always ready to lend a hand. The perfect neighbor.

My height, in heels. Long brown hair. A bust that appeared to defy gravity, and needed to. Striking green eyes. The body, perfectly honed. Lightly tanned, from hanging out next to her swimming pool in a bikini. I’m the only one who could see her there.

In short, I knew one available woman, and she could have taken a job walking runways, or been nominated for humanitarian of the year. Oh, and from talking to her, she was smart enough to be the star employee where I worked, if she’d been an engineer. Completely. Out. Of. My. League.

So, I kept my admiration from a distance, and it grew into an obsession.

I can’t recall when I ﬁrst got the idea of applying my other obsession. I’d been working on, well, it started out as a virtual reality system that didn’t need googles or gloves: It just broadcast directly into your brain. I modiﬁed it.

She took her yearly vacation, and I took a risk. I broke into her house. Installed my system into her bedroom, inside the walls.

Once she got back, it would broadcast thoughts into her mind every night. Commands really. I couldn’t count on actual thoughts working well, not in her conscious mind. But the subconsciousness was simpler; I could install commands into that. Commands she would have to obey.

I waited a month. Or more correctly, I debated a month. From the theory, it would take about ten days to get the commands to set in. Enough time for me to rethink and waver. I had programmed a basic set of commands in when I installed it, and had expected to be able to update it later. But the wireless connection couldn’t reach. So I couldn’t turn it oﬀ.

Eventually, I had to know if it had worked, at the very least. I walked out into my backyard at night, when I was less likely to be seen. I had a test command: A series of tones, that when she heard, she was to come directly to me. Nothing else mattered. They put her in a trance-state, which I could lift by playing another series of tones, or by command. She wouldn’t remember anything that happened during the trance.

That was the theory. The idea had been that if it worked, she wouldn’t know.

I played the tones, bouncing them oﬀ her windows with another gadget of mine. I ﬁgured that way she’d be able to hear it, even inside the house.

She didn’t come from inside the house.

One moment I was standing there, hoping that my neighbor could hear the tones, and wondering if she’d obey the command I’d tried to embed in her head. The next, I was face-to-face with a super. Green Star: The absolute number one superheroine. No questions asked.

“Uh…” That was my eloquent self.

“I come as commanded.” Green Star intoned.

The expected phrase jarred me enough to notice details. Like the fact that she was staring blankly straight ahead. Or that, in her heels, she was exactly my height. The way her long brown hair fell. Her striking green eyes. “Chloe?”

“Yes?”

“You are Chloe O’Rinn?”

“That is my birth-name.” She hadn’t moved.

And I’d thought she was out of my league before.

I was terriﬁed, frankly. “Go back to where you were before I summoned you, and resume what you were doing. Forget all about being summoned.”

“As you command.” And she was gone.

I don’t remember going back inside. I do remember sitting on my couch, shaking. I’d just summoned Green Star to my side. And she hadn’t even noticed.

There were a couple of cable channels that covered only the supers. I ﬂicked one on.

“So, Green Star, can you tell us why you left so suddenly in the middle of the ﬁght? And then came back, just in time to save your partners?”

Green Star looked puzzled. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Come on, Green Star: You ﬂew straight through a high-rise, you left so quickly.” The reporter was playing back some footage.

I was watching Chloe. For just a moment, she looked truly worried, then her face froze. “Sorry, I can’t discuss it at this time.”

The reporter backed down. “Whatever you say, Green Star. Still, I have to congratulate you on another save.”

“It was nothing. Just trying to help. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

“Of course.” She disappeared. They went back to a discussion of the ﬁght that had just occurred, what had started it, what it meant. I tuned it out.

She had ﬂown through a building when I called.

Obviously her hearing was at least as good as claimed. They’d moved on to another story, and I hadn’t caught where the ﬁght had taken place, but it wasn’t in my suburb, that was for sure. I’d been playing it loud, to make sure she could hear it inside her house, but…

My device. It worked partly on auditory stimuli. Or, more correctly, it stimulated the auditory nerves directly for some of it’s eﬀects.

It must have been way overpowered on her.

The smart thing to do would be to go over there, disable the device, and hope the commands faded in time. Maybe I could let on in a few months that I suspected her other identity.

Right. That was the smart move. But she didn’t have a day job, so I didn’t know when she might be out of the house. And she could get home from the other side of the globe in a blink of an eye. She was probably already home now.

If my device had worked as expected, I could turn it oﬀ from here. But obviously her house was sheilded. Probably as a safety precaution. Or maybe stray electronics bugged her, somehow. How was I to know? Regardless, I would have to get into her house to turn it oﬀ. Which wasn’t a quick process either; I hadn’t expected it to need to be. After all, I could always connect wirelessly, right?

Right.

So. I was living next door to the world’s number-one superheroine. And I had a working brainwashing device in her bedroom. Which she didn’t know about.

I was mostly thinking of all the ways this could wrong. And wondering how quickly someone would ﬁgure it out. And how long the rest of my life in jail was going to be.

Well, there wasn’t anything I could do about it that night. Might as well try to enjoy a night’s sleep.

The next morning I’d calmed down a bit. Sure, I had Green Star under a brainwashing device. But she didn’t know about it yet, and I hadn’t done anything to her yet. All I had to do was turn it oﬀ. And deprogram her. As long as no one found out, no problems. Getting in without her noticing wouldn’t actually be hard: After all, all I had to do was play one of my command sequences and she’d go into a trance.

As luck would have it, she was in the backyard, working on her garden. Probably she needed to think.

I palmed my tone generator, and walked over to the gate in the fence. “Hi Chloe.”

“Howard. Hi. Sorry, I was just thinking. What’s up?”

I activated the tone generator. It was set much quieter this time. I couldn’t even hear it.

She could. She stiﬀened, and walked the three steps to where I was. “I come as commanded.”

“Follow me.” I needed a few supplies. Also, I wanted a few questions answered before I did anything else. But I didn’t want anyone seeing her in this trance.

First things ﬁrst. “Green Star. How did the Association take your leaving the ﬁght last night?”

“They are upset, and worried.”

“Anyone treating it as suspicious?”

“Yes. I am.”

“Anyone else?”

“No. I told them I needed to save someone from debris.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t want them to worry about me. I can handle it.”

That wasn’t reassuring.

“Who in the Association knows where you live?”

“No one. We have a strict no-civilian-identites policy.”

“Why?”

“Supers have changed sides before. And places can be bugged; computers broken into. It is safer.”

Well, that was one thing less to worry about.

“Who knows about Chloe O’Rinn being Green Star?”

“You.”

“No one else?”

“My great-aunt. She passed down the artifact to me, just before she died.”

Ok, I was curious about the origin story. Maybe another time.

“What would you do if you consciously realized that I knew?”

“I would take you to be brainwiped at the Tower.” There was no hesitation or doubt in that answer.

Yikes.

“What do you think of me as a person?”

“Howard Martel is an inept geek. He is tolerable as a neighbor because he does not bug me too much. I try to be kind to him, as I should be kind to everyone, but it is hard sometimes.” What was even worse was the face she made.

Ok, new plan. Bitch going down. “Every night when you go to bed, you are going to go into a trance state. You will repeat ‘I exist to serve Howard Martel’ while masturbating, until you cum. You will then leave the trance state, and fall asleep normally. You will do this again every morning ﬁrst thing when you wake up. You will not remember doing this, and you will not mention any of this to anyone. Understand?”

“Yes. I will masturbate, repeating ‘I exist to serve Howard Martel’ every night and morning until I cum. I will not remember or tell anyone.”

“Good. Do it now. Do not come out of trance.”

One hand went into her pants, and she started to intone the mantra. At ﬁrst it was just as blank and emotionless as everything else she had done in trance, but soon it her face started to ﬂush, and she started to visibly enjoy what she was doing.

Me, I enjoyed watching.

When the show was over, I had her follow me back outside. “Ok, Chloe. When I count to three, you will wake up. You will not remember any of this consciously. You will only remember we had a pleasant chat. You will not notice anything out of the ordinary. One. Two. Three.”

Animation came back to her face. Then she checked her watch. “Anyway, Howard, it was nice talking to you, but I’ve got to go. Some other time?”

“Another time.” And I watched her go back into her house.

An hour later I regretted it. So what if she detested me? I wasn’t in her league, after all. I should have just de-programmed her, turned oﬀ the machine, and let it go. Not let on that I knew her other identity, maybe move, and ﬁnd some other woman to obsess over. One who couldn’t break me in half with one hand.

That would have been the smart thing to do.

But I’d lost my best chance. Oh, sure I could activate the tones again. But while I could make her forget that I’d put her in a trance, I’d have a hard time explaining the hole in her wall if she decided she didn’t want to use a door to come ‘directly to me’. So I’d have to wait until I could catch her outside again. She was usually in her yard at least some of the day. She liked to sunbathe, if nothing else.

I waited a week, then two. Nothing. I never saw so much as a hint of her brown hair.

Eventually, I decided to take a risk. I slung my laptop-bag (with the software to control the device in her bedroom) over my shoulder, palmed the tone generator, and headed to her front door. I knew she was in: I’d just seen her car enter the garage.

I did consider a moment, as I pressed her doorbell, that she might just refuse to answer the door. At this point, it was pretty obvious she was avoiding me.

She didn’t. I didn’t give her a chance to say anything: I just activated the tone generator.

“I come as commanded.”

“Let me in.” She stood aside, and closed the door behind her.

“Have you been avoiding me? And if so, why?”

“Yes, master. I have been avoiding you. I was trying to ﬁgure out a way out of your trap.”

Ok, I guess I had laid a trap for her. But she shouldn’t have known about it. “What made you think I’d set a trap for you?”

“I found myself needing to serve you. Every day, it got harder to think about anything else. And, when I tried to pleasure myself, I found myself saying ‘I exist to serve Howard Martel.’”

“What? You remembered that?”

“No, master. I do not remember the times in trance. This was on my own.”

“If I let you out of trance right now, what would you do?”

“I exist only to serve you, master. In trace or not, I will obey you.”

“And the conscious you know this?”

“Yes master. She has been trying to avoid letting you claim her, but she knows she exists to serve you.”

“Ok then. You will remember nothing of this trance, but you will will realize you have been in a trance. If I say ‘trance again’, you will fall back into this trance. Wake.”

She blinked a moment, then took a step backward, looked down, and started to tremble slightly. “Master.”

“Green Star.”

Her eyes ﬂicked up and wide, but just for a moment. “You know?”

“It was pretty obvious when you arrived in costume.” I realized why she was staring at her feet. “You may look at me.”

“Yes, master.” She led the way; just a few feet to her living room. I took the couch. She took the ﬂoor.

Obviously she had set ideas on how a master-slave relationship was supposed to work.

Now wasn’t the time to address that. “Ok, ﬁrst oﬀ, I want to know what you’ve done to try to escape my control.”

“I… Master…”

“Can it. I know you’ve been trying to ﬁgure out a way out. I want to know what you’ve tried, and how you noticed the trap.” The last was redundant, but it was a logical question. And I’d like to hear her say it.

The eyes went wide again. “I… I ﬁrst noticed about two weeks ago. There was that ﬁght I disappeared from,” I nodded at her implied question. She continued. “And I was trying to think of why I would do that. I was taking a mental inventory, and I noticed the idea that I… Well, existed to serve you. That I needed to serve you. It was faint, but it wasn’t something I’d thought before. So I tried to avoid you, and think about how you could have gotten that idea into my head. And I did avoid you. I know I did. And yet, every day, the need was stronger. The certainty, that this was why I existed. I tried to panic, I tried to tell someone in the Association. Let them into my head so they could ﬁgure out what you’d done to me. But, every time I tried, I just couldn’t. I’d change the subject, or miss the opening, or just walk away before the conversation started.”

“I even spent a couple of nights in the Tower. Didn’t come home at all. It didn’t help. It still got stronger.”

“And then… Every time I tried to focus on the idea, every time I tried to ﬁnd a way around it, I got aroused. The more I focused on it, the more aroused I’d get. Eventually, I’d go to my room and… Well, play with myself. About the third time I did that, I noticed that I was repeating ‘I exist to serve Howard Martel’ as I did so. Which scared me, but was arousing… I, um, have been spending a lot of time in bed the last couple of days.” She looked away, ashamed but aroused.

“So the most you’ve actually done is to spend a couple of nights in the Tower.”

She nodded.

“Could anyone have overheard you there while you slept?”

She question puzzled her, but she didn’t let that stop her. “No, master. All the bedrooms are soundproofed.”

“So, what do you think of all of this? The truth, please.”

She ﬂushed scarlet, and couldn’t look at me. “It… Is a secret fantasy of mine. To have some villain ﬁgure out who I am, and turn me into his personal sex slave. That’s one reason I’m having trouble ﬁghting it. I’m usually very resistant to mind-control, but you got past that, and… I can’t stop thinking about how good it would feel to be your brainwashed slave.”

“So you don’t think of me as an inept geek, tolerable only because I don’t bug you.”

The face that she turned to me could only be described as ‘deer-in-the-headlights’. “How? I… No. Not anymore. You are my master. I exist to serve you. Whatever you want is good. Nothing else can matter to me.” She steeled herself to deliver the apology: “As of now, you are my living god. I will do absolutely anything for you. What I used to think of you no longer matters; I know what I am, and what you are. And I am slave to you, master.”

She was really into this. That must have been some fantasy for her.

And, as I thought that, I realized this was a way out. I could have my obsession, and not get caught, and everyone could be happy. All I had to do was stay in the character she’d created for me. “Ok. For now, you are to continue as Green Star as normal. I will decide how we will handle the rest, but you will obey me no matter what I decide. Understand?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, master.”

“Ok. Time for phase two.”

She had no idea what I meant, but she followed quietly when I picked up my bag and led the way to her bedroom.

And then she got confused when I pulled out my laptop. “Master? What are you doing?”

“I’m adjusting something.” I pulled up the control program, and started to change around the commands. After a month and a half, these would be set as securely as they were ever likely to be, and I needed something to reinforce the new plan: Make her see me as her secret master, while she continued to be a hero. I ﬁgured as long as I didn’t interfere with her heroing, I could just let things be.

She was smart. “But the house is shielded, so no one can… It’s inside. You can’t do this from your house. You put something in my bedroom to brainwash me.”

“Very good, slave. That’s exactly what I did.”

“And, every time I came up to here to pleasure myself, whenever I tried to think of a way of escaping you, I put myself back under it’s inﬂuence…”

I hadn’t thought of that, but I turned and gave a sly grin. “Yes, you did. It’s a wonder you held out so long.”

“I… It was only a matter of time. I would have come over to oﬀer myself to you soon.”

Another thing I hadn’t thought of. “Well then, be glad I came here, so you wouldn’t have to do so.”

She was obviously very turned on by this whole conversation. Well, who was I to deny her? “Don’t worry, you’ll love being my brainwashed slave. Feel free to play with yourself as I adjust the brainwashing chamber.”

She took that as the command it was. “My bedroom is a brainwashing chamber.”

“Yes it is.” I’d hoped that would allow me to get back to work. I looked over at her. She wasn’t really talking to me.

“I sleep in a brainwashing chamber. Every night, I get brainwashed. I go to the brainwashing chamber, and let it program me.”

I had an idea to push her a bit. “Yes you do. All on your own.”

It worked. “Oooh. I let myself be brainwashed. I… I speciﬁcally head to the brainwashing chamber. Even… Even when I want to feel good, I go to the brainwashing chamber. I… Uhhgn.” Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed.

Yep, she got turned on by being brainwashed. I took the time before she recovered to ﬁnish up my reprogramming. I even had time to put away the laptop.

In fact, when she ﬁnally did wake back up, I was standing over her watching. I put down a hand to help her up. The one she placed in mine was sticky.

I wondered what to do with the stickiness on my hand once she was back on her feet. She took the decision oﬀ my hand, by licking it clean. “So, is it on again now?”

“Yes, it is.”

“I don’t feel it.”

“You aren’t meant to. Not at this setting.”

“I…” She fought oﬀ another wave of arousal. “May I ask how it works, master?”

Why not. “Only if you promise not to try to disable it.”

The thought had obviously not crossed her head, at least not yet. “Of course, master. I will not do anything to ﬁght your control of me.”

That was a bit more than I’d asked, but never mind. “Well, I embedded some antennas in the walls and ceiling. They broadcast a set of tuned waveforms, that interact with any brain in the room. They basically reshape the mind directly, making the new thoughts a part of the structure of your brain. I’m acting as a kind of mental mechanic.”

That brought a grin a to her face. “So you are just giving me a mental tune up.”

“Exactly.” I grinned back. “Now…” I wasn’t as aroused by all this brainwashing talk as she was, but her display was enough to set oﬀ anyone. “I have one question for you.”

“Yes, master?”

“Is it safe for me to have sex with you?” This was the other thought I’d had once I’d realized Chloe was Green Star: Superstrength could have some disadvantages for me.

She started, then stopped, obviously actually thinking about the question, and realizing why I’d asked it. “I’m not sure, master. I’ve had sex with normals before, without hurting them, but I was always holding myself back. And I always faked orgasm for them. But… Just the idea that I’m being brainwashed to serve you better, right now, as we speak, is more of a turn-on than they ever were. I’m not sure I could hold back. And I’m sure I wouldn’t have to fake it.”

Not what I’d wanted to hear, but it was something I needed to know. “Then, I suggest you practice. Get some dildos, and practice holding back as you cum for real.”

She was obviously disappointed, and dropped her head. “Yes, master.”

“For now though: Strip.”

“Master?”

“You heard me.”

And understood me. I a moment I was being treated to a private stripshow from the daydreams of everyone who’d ever wanted Green Star.

“Where’s your uniform?”

“Master?”

“I assumed you wore it under your clothes or something. Just wondering.”

“Oh. I summon it.”

“Really? Show me.”

She looked down at herself. Her shirt was gone, as well as her pants, and her bra was already partly undone. “Right now?”

“Yeees.” I said, as if to a slow student.

“It, um, integrates the clothing I’m wearing into itself.” And then she shifted into a well-practiced pose: Arms straight out, legs widely spread, head held as high as possible. “Star Power!”

It managed to echo.

There was a ﬂash of green light, and I managed to barely see a green star slam into her outstretched body. Or rather, two did: One from the front, and one from the back. For a moment, they glowed, and the reason for the pose became clear: Each arm, each leg, was one point of the star. She seemed to hover in the air — or maybe she actually did — for a moment, then the green light shrank and dissipated, solidifying into…

Well, not her normal uniform. It looked more like it was painted on, instead of being merely tight cloth. Well, except for where the bra and panties had been. Those were still there, if somewhat shifted in shape and texture. The minimalist nature of what she had been wearing before was somehow more apparent now that it had been transformed.

Green Star looked down at herself. “I always make sure I’m dressed before summoning it, because then it becomes a full suit. I’ve played with it a few times to see what it looks like with other bases, but… It would raise questions.”

“Ever tried it naked?”

Her immediate blush was probably enough of an answer. “Yes. It’s… obscene.”

She had to be expecting this. “Show me.”

She went back to the pose she’d had a moment ago. “Power, to Star!” The process reversed. Then she stripped oﬀ the last of her clothing as quickly as she could, and took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Star Power!”

It was certainly a sight.

Without a cloth base, it never quite solidiﬁed. So you see it more as powerﬂows clinging to her body. They outlined and emphasized the play of muscles, up and down her legs, in her arms, all through her body. Every breath was to watch a kaleidoscope of green ﬂow over her.

Well, over most of her. Apparently the ‘star’ didn’t quite follow her legs exactly. There was a small triangle right where they met which was uncovered. And all the more on display for it.

Nor was that the only gap in the coverage. There was a star of bare ﬂesh, centered directly over her chest. The top point just reached to her neck, and where it ﬁnished the suit ended, leaving her head free. But the arms, and the legs, went out and around, leaving her breasts on display, while still managing to support them from the outside.

I circled around. There was a matching star in the back, leaving her upper back bare as well. The tips of the arms met those coming from the front.

“Very nice. I approve.” I let myself trail a hand over her ﬁrm buttocks as I came back to the front.

There was fear in her eyes. I let her know she was free to ask the question. “You aren’t going to make me patrol in this, are you?”

I laughed. “No. I said for you to be Green Star as normal, and I meant that, at least for the moment. Use the standard version of your uniform in front of others.” I had another thought. “In your fantasies, does the villain make you patrol in this?”

Her status as a sex object was pretty plain in this. “Some time, you’ll have to show me that version. For now, though… Kneel.”

“Master?”

“If you’d loose control if I took you normally, there is an alternative. Open your mouth.”

She got the idea, and went to work on my pants immediately.

“No biting. Swallow everything. And, you may cum once you are done.”

The ‘Yes, master’ was muﬄed by cock.

She’d obviously had more experience at this than I did. How much, I’m not sure. I won’t say she was expert, but being completely turned on, completely devoted to my pleasure, and knowing that she would get a reward only once I was done, she set to it enthusiastically. And apparently gagging her wasn’t possible. She had one hand helping her mouth, and the other between her own legs.

It wasn’t long before my cum was sliding down her throat. She made no sign that this was not exactly as she wished it.

And she was polite enough to wait until I withdrew and nodded my ok before cumming herself. It wasn’t as powerful as her last orgasm, but she appeared to appreciate it. “Trance again.”

She dropped into trance, still kneeling at my feet. “If you hear the summon tones, you will avoid property damage when coming to me. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“You also have the right to give me a signal — no matter what I have told you to do — that Green Star is needed someplace. However, if I have given you other instructions, you will wait for me to acknowledge your signal before leaving. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Wake.”

She blinked, and was out of trance. I helped her to her feet. “Ok. I’m going to want keys and access codes to everything you own. I have the right to go anywhere I want to, understand?” She nodded. “And I want access to your credit cards and bank accounts. Everything you owned, I now own.”

“Yes, master.”

I tried to think of what else I would need. “And get me some way to communicate with you. No matter where you are. Something no one else can access.”

“Of course.” She paused. “That may take some time; it is not something I have access to on my own. And, I may need to let someone know that I have a contact the Association doesn’t know about.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Just that you have been careful not to get caught. If I ask for this, someone will know Green Star is working with someone not in the Association.”

She had a point. If I messed up, it meant someone knew to look for me, or for someone at least. “Well, that can wait, but see if you can think of a way around the problem.”

“Thank you, master.”

“You’re going to love being my brainwashed slave.”

“I… Yes, master. I will.”

I didn’t feel like sticking around. I left her standing there.

Back at my place, I sat back to relax. And had a panic attack instead.

I’d just set myself up as Green Star’s secret ‘master.’ More importantly, I’d set up Green Star as my brainwashed sex-slave. At what point had I decided this would be a good idea? Ok, she had a kink. And she was really hot. And I wasn’t actually doing anything to her, or at least I wasn’t planning on doing anything. Nothing a normal boyfriend wouldn’t have done. Well, except for the brainwashing bit. And maybe the access to her bank accounts had been a bit over the top. But I’d wanted to keep up the persona! So she wouldn’t doubt my control!

Because the moment she doubted my control, this was all over. The moment she decided she was free, I wasn’t going to see daylight ever again. If I was lucky.

Deep breaths. It was ok. She’d enjoyed it. She’d really enjoyed it. And no one else had to know about it. All I needed to do was continue like I was. I could marry Chloe, as I’d wanted, and have her be a perfect little housewife. And meanwhile, Green Star could continue to be hero, just like she’d always been. So she had a fetish. Lots of people did. I’ll bet there were plenty of nice, normal, marriages where behind closed doors they called each other ‘master’ and ‘slave’. This could just be another one. Sure, I’d been a bit forceful in how I’d wooed her, but it was the results that mattered.

I just had to step back, and take this carefully.

I’d wait until she was sure she wouldn’t injure me during sex, and then I’d tell her we were getting married. We’d do the full wedding bit. No problem.

In the meantime… I could let my device work on her. I’d visit her every once in a while, or have her come over here. I’ll have her do the cleaning.

Yeah. I’d have Green Star be my maid.

Fuck, I was so screwed.

The next week I was actually grateful that there was a new, ‘emergency’ project at the oﬃce. I put in long hours, barely getting home at all. And Green Star made the news, with some major supervillian battle; She’d spent all week tracking some guy down, then ﬁnally brought him down in some epic battle in space.

So we’d both been busy all week. I had Chloe make me dinner a couple of times, but we’d both been rushing around so much I didn’t really have much time for anything else.

I slept in on Saturday, then decided to head over to see how Chloe was doing, and if she was home.

She had given me keys, so I just let myself in. I heard something from upstairs, so I headed for her bedroom.

I opened the door, and saw a beautiful blonde woman tied to the bed. Her eyes locked to mine the moment I entered the room. “Help me! She’s gone crazy!”

“Hi master! I got you a present!” Chloe came in behind me. In the ‘naked’ version of the Green Star costume.

I looked from one to the other. “Ok, tell me what’s going on here.”

Yep. They both started talking.

“Ok. One at a time.” I turned to Green Star. “You start. Who is she, why did you bring her here, and what do you think you are doing.”

“This is is Techina. I brought her for a few reasons: First oﬀ, why send me back to the Association, except to recruit your harem? I thought she would be a good choice for your second slave. She runs the Tower computer systems, so she can cover any tracks you might make. Also, she’s not super-strong, so she can be someone for you to use until I can get the hang of restraining myself. Lastly, you asked me to come up with a way to get a com device that you could use to contact me, and she’s the one I would have asked to make it. This way, you’re tracks will be covered when she makes it for us.”

“I ﬁgured since you told me where your brainwashing chamber is, you’d want me to use it, right? So I brought her here to be brainwashed.”

I wasn’t sure I followed all that logic, but at least I knew what she was thinking. “Let me guess, in your fantasies, the villain always made you recruit for him.” Green Star nodded. I sighed. “No more recruiting without permission.”

I turned to Techina. “Hi. I’m…” I cast my mind for a suitable name; using my own didn’t sound like a good idea.

“The Mental Mechanic. I heard. Green Star’s been talking about you non-stop. How she just loves serving you, and how I’m going to be such a nice brainwashed sex slave. I got it. You’ll never get away with it, creep.”

I looked over at Green Star. “Don’t worry. I stripped her before I came: There’s not a single piece of technology on her. Anywhere. We weren’t tracked, and she can’t call for help.”

Well, at least she was a compentent crazy kidnapper. “Sorry about all of this. I don’t suppose if I had Green Star take you back to the Tower you’d forget all about this?”

“Sure. As soon as you are in jail.” Right. Ok then.

“Can you tell me what happened? Your version.”

She shot a glare at Green Star, who looked like an ad in a porn magazine. “Green there came in to the Tower after the beatdown. Not too unusual. We were talking, standard post-op stuﬀ, in the control room, when she decided to just go crazy. Jumped me, and had my gear oﬀ in seconds. When I came to, we were ﬂying here, and she started talking about how I was going to be such a good present for her master. She brought me here, which she called the ‘brainwashing chamber’, and tied me to the bed. I’ve been here ever since. I’m not feeling very brainwashed. Creep.”

“It’s set for slow reinforcement. For Green Star.” I sighed again, and turned back to Chloe. “I assume you were waiting for the coast to be clear?”

“Yes. And I made sure the security cameras couldn’t see us leave, and I hid all her gear. She won’t be noticed for a while.”

“Unless she has a day job.” She looked suitably chastised.

Ok. So… If I sent her back, she not only knew Green Star was brainwashed, she knew my face. I’ll bet she could ﬁnd me. At the very least, they’d do their best to un-brainwash Green Star. Great.

On the ﬂip side, we couldn’t hold her for weeks. And she knew what the room was supposed to do. My device was only supposed to work on the subconscious, and only by adding up over time. Under normal operation, against someone prepared to resist, it would never work.

Under normal operation. I could boost the power, make it overwhelm her. Still, focused resistance would probably stop it, or at least hold it oﬀ.

So, I’d need to distract her… “Green. I’m going to need my laptop.”

“Sure.” She disappeared, then reappeared, with it in her hands. Nice trick. I hoped the laptop held up to the acceleration.

I took it from her, and started working on a new program. “Sorry Techina; I wouldn’t have asked Green Star to grab you, but I just can’t risk letting you go free. I guess we’ll see if this device can work on someone who knows what’s coming.”

“Bastard.”

“I know.” Ok. Change all references to me to be ‘The Mental Mechanic’. Love, serve, obey, yadda yadda yadda. Don’t tell anyone I exist. Protect me with your life. The basics. Also: Arousal. It was going to be needed in a moment.

Then I stepped out of the room, and turned the gain up to full power. (I didn’t want to get caught in that ﬁeld.) I heard groaning from the room, and blondie looked visibly strained. “I can resist this. I’ll ﬁnd a way out. You’ll pay.” She spat at me.

“You probably could. Green Star?” I waited for her to turn to me. She was obviously feeling the eﬀects too, but she was euphoric at the mental control. “Make her cum. As long and hard as you can. Don’t stop until I say so.”

Watching wasn’t going to help. I shut the door, and headed downstairs.

Cloe had a good liquor cabinet, and I needed to get drunk.

I woke up on Chloe’s couch, with just the start of an impressive hangover. Unfortunately, I could still remember why I’d gotten drunk. And I could hear them still going at it upstairs.

I went up to check on them.

The scent when I opened the door could have been bottled and labeled ‘pure sex’. A step inside was enough to set oﬀ my hangover, and remind me that I had set the device to extra-strength. I stepped back out, and analyzed what I could see from the door.

Techina was still securely tied. She was also passed out. This wasn’t stopping Green Star: she was still trying to make the body of her teammate cum. With some success. Green Star herself was looking tired, but not exhausted. Super-stamina. Gotta love it.

“Green. Stop.” She did, and looked over at me. “Come out.”

“Yes, master.” She came over to stand in the hallway with me. Another advantage of a magical costume: It didn’t look ruﬄed or beat up at all. Unlike the bed. Up close she was more exhausted than I’d seen, but she still looked like she could step right into a ﬁght. Or, in that costume, a porno.

But I needed to make sure Techina was ok as well. “Go, get a glass of water for yourself, and a couple for Techina. Get her to drink them. Then… Change into something more normal, and go sleep on the couch.”

She swayed in place. “Yes, master.” And left at a walking pace.

I went down, and got myself a glass of water as well, then turned down the lights in the living room and held my head.

“Techina drank the water, master.”

“Good. Get some rest.”

“Yes, beloved massteerrrr.” She was asleep as she hit the couch. She’d even changed clothes ﬁrst: It was just a t-shirt and sweatpants, but it wasn’t a costume.

Well, that should have distracted Techina enough for the device to get to work. And at the power level I’d set it at, it should re-write her subconsciousness in less than a day.

Which brought up the question: how long had she been under?

I hadn’t recorded the time I’d started this, but it was now… Well, I guess I’d gotten drunk early. It was 8am on Sunday.

Time sure ﬂies when you are having fun.

It’d been late morning — or even early afternoon on Saturday, when I’d walked over. So she’d already been under for most of a day.

I was going to need to check her progress, somehow. I could ask Chloe, but that would mean having to wake her. And she’d stayed up all night fucking her friend. She deserved a rest.

All I really needed was to block the radio waves from getting to my head. Then I could walk in, and make sure that Techina was still ok, and maybe be able to see how the commands had taken hold.

I tried to think of a way to block radio waves from my skull…

Which was how I came to be wearing a tinfoil cap as I entered the brainwashing chamber again. Don’t knock it: It worked. At least, my headache didn’t suddenly get stronger the moment I entered the room.

The bed was going to need to be changed out. Chloe had done well with my command, and Techina had cum often. Two glasses of water wasn’t going to cut it, but hopefully it would be enough for the moment. She looked… Well, well-fucked, to me.

And she was moving. So she couldn’t be too exhausted. She was…

She was thrusting. The empty air above her. She was still trying to have sex, even passed out and exhausted.

She was also talking, softly. I walked up and leaned in: “I exist to serve the Mental Mechanic. I must serve. I must obey. I love my master. I love the Mental Mechanic. I exist to serve…” Well, at least it appeared the brainwashing was working.

I left her to it, and went downstairs to sleep oﬀ my hangover.

By noon, both me and Chloe were back on our feet. Chloe was better oﬀ; me, I still had a bit of the hangover. But a good lunch was helping. I even made Chloe eat it with me. She was… subdued.

“What’s up, Chloe?”

“Are you mad at me, master?”

“For bringing in Techina?”

“Yes.”

“A bit. But I think it’s more important to deal with one problem at a time.”

“And she’s a problem?”

“She’s a complication. I know my device works, but it was never designed for quick brainwashings. And people will miss her. Maybe not the Association, but someone. And no matter who they are, it’s possible that they could put things together, and track her back to here.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know you are. Just as I know you won’t do it again. So we won’t say anything more about it. Ok?”

“Ok.” There were tears in her eyes. “Thank you, master.”

“No problem.” I really wanted to ask how the new commands were aﬀecting her, but at the same time I didn’t. Chloe was… Well, acting very devoted. Scarily devoted. Which was one reason I hadn’t wanted to do anything about her exceeding her authority: At the moment, she could take any punishment very hard. Hopefully she didn’t feel the need to punish herself…

“Well, let’s go see how our captive is doing.” I’d moved the tinfoil hat into a more normal hat, so I put that on. There were bits of silver around the edges, but at least it didn’t look like I was wearing a tinfoil hat.

Upstairs, Techina was awake. The room still reeked. Her eyes locked on to me the moment I entered the room. “Master. I… I’m sorry for threatening you. I understand now. I was made to serve you. I exist only to serve you. Please, let me serve you.”

“How are you feeling?”

It took her a moment to focus on the question. “I… I’m a bit sore, but not bad. Thirsty, and I could use the bathroom.”

I nodded. It was to be expected. “How do you feel about me?”

She broke into tears. “I… I love you, master. I would do anything for you. I… I’m really sorry for insulting you. Please, let me make it up to you. I… anything you want me to do, I will do.”

“What’s your name.”

“Techina.” She knew that wasn’t the answer I was looking for. I just glared. “Crystal Nilsson.” She capitulated.

“I… Oh, man, this is going to be a conﬂict of interest, if there ever was one. I’m an engineer at one of your competitors. We’re always trying to catch up to you.” I paused, thinking. “I’m guessing you make all your own stuﬀ? And you also are head designer for your own company?”

“Yes, to both, master. I assume you want me to turn over my designs to you?”

“No. As I said, conﬂict of interest. And you are a much better designer than me. We’ll… Well, we’ll work something out.”

“You really meant it, when you said you’d have let me go, didn’t you? If you could have been sure I wouldn’t have disturbed you and Green Star?”

I just nodded.

“I… Can I be glad I made you do this to me? Please?”

“You’re asking my permission?”

She nodded. “I made you do something you didn’t want to do. That’s… a sin. Wrong. Something I do not do. Ever.”

“I forgive you. You didn’t know what you were meant for yet.” It was what she needed to hear.

“I… Thank you, master.”

“Ok, before I untie you, I want a simple promise from you. That you will not attempt to ﬁght your brainwashing, or my control over you.”

“Of course, master. You really don’t need to ask.”

“But I want you to have said it, to know that I have said not to ﬁght it, and that you have agreed.” I motioned for Chloe to start untying the bonds. “Anything else I should know about? Any other problems I’m likely to have controlling you?”

“There is one, master.” She said, rubbing her wrists and sitting up. “My spouse will be looking for me, when I didn’t come home from the Tower.”

Oh, great. Not only have I brainwashed two of the top supers into serving me, and one of them is the head of the top technology company in the world, but she’s married. “Ok. So I assume your spouse knows your super identity.”

“Of course.”

“Would he tell the other members of the Association that you are missing? Do they know you are married?”

“I… We have kept it quiet, given the Association’s stance on knowing each other’s secret identities. But she might have mentioned that she was worried about me to our other teammates.”

“Chloe, have you gotten anything like that?”

“No master.”

“Ok, so at least it’s not a general alert. And: ‘she’?”

“Yes. I’m married to Sarika. Her real name is Tsubame.”

“Well, that’s a bit of luck, I guess…”

Crystal grinned at me. “Lucky that she’s another superhero? Or that you can have another sex slave?”

“Well, mostly that she’s female. It means we can actually do something. This room only works on women; it’d just give males a headache. I could have modiﬁed it, but that’d have taken time.”

“I was wondering why you didn’t appear to worried about it aﬀecting you. Although I assumed that hat had something to do with it.”

I put a hand up to touch it. “There is something to that; I lined it to prevent headaches. But that’s all I’d get in here.”

“Interesting. I’d love to see the plans sometime.”

“We can geek out over them later.” I considered. “Maybe I should have you build a set into your helmet…”

She looked startled at that, but put her eyes down to try to hide a smile. “If you wish, master.” Heh.

“Anyway, we were talking about Sarika. Simplest plan is just to bring her here, and brainwash her as well. Then you can stay together, and no one will need to know. The question is the best way to do that.”

“If Green just went and got my armor, Sarika would probably follow the homing beacon in it.”

“Alone? Or with backup?”

“I don’t know. It depends on what she’s thinking.”

“Let’s assume she’s thinking the worst.” I paused. “Wait. We are thinking to hard about this. What would happen if you just called her up and asked her to come?”

“She’d ask where I’d been. But she’d come.” She smiled at me.

“Tell her that a villain had captured you and held you, but that you are free now.” I smiled back.

“Sure.” She looked down at herself. “Especially if I told her I was naked, and wanted clothes before she called anyone…”

I laughed. “Although, you could just raid the closet here. Ok, we have a plan. Chloe, you can capture Sarika when she gets here, right? Without making a scene?”

“As long as she doesn’t expect me, yes. She’s strong enough to give me a ﬁght, but I’d win. And if I surprise her, no problem.”

“Good. First things ﬁrst though: This room reeks. Get it aired out, and change the bedding. Or whatever needs to get changed. Crystal: Use the bathroom, and take a shower. We’ll get you something to eat as well.”

“Yes, master.” That really sounds good in unison. Chloe went to the window ﬁrst, while Crystal hopped oﬀ the bed.

And it was a hop, down. “You’re shorter than I thought.”

She looked up at me. “I wear platform shoes with heels in the armor. They add about six inches. Plus the armor itself just looks tall. Why do you think I was staying on the bed? Kneeling on it brought me eye-level to you.”

I just shook my head, and watched her walk through the door to the master bath. She stumbled as she went through. “Whoa.”

“What is it?”

“I… That brainwashing ﬁeld is stronger than I thought. I…” She put a hand to her head. “My head feels scrambled. Like nothing’s holding my thoughts in their place.”

“How do you feel about me?”

She turned fully around, and looked me in the eye. Kinda cute from her height. “No change there. I exist to serve, master, and I love you totally. It’s just… I’m expecting a pressure that’s not there.” She paused, and considered. “I probably should put your circuitry in my helmet. To help me think clearly.”

“Sorry. It’s not really designed for quick brainwashing. It was operating way above the normal power rating.”

She nodded. “I see. I’ll monitor how it goes while I shower.” She looked around a moment. “I have to come back out through this room. If the eﬀect was fading, I’ll just stay in the bedroom. If that’s ok with you, master?”

“Sounds like a good plan. Sure you’ll follow it?”

“I doubt what you’ve done to me will fail all at once. If I feel it failing, I’ll still want to make sure it stays in place.”

“Point.” I nodded. “Get cleaned up.”

“Yes master.”

I turned back to the bed, which Chloe had already stripped. With the bedding gone, and the door and windows open, it was starting to smell better already.

However small Crystal was, she could eat. “Are you sure you don’t want anything, master?”

“I already ate.” I smiled back at her. Now that her hair wasn’t a mess, reached nearly to her waist. “How do you keep that hair out of your way? When you’re ﬁghting, I mean.”

“The helmet takes care of it.” She looked down at where Chloe was kneeling. “And it’s ﬁne that I… Well, am eating at a table with you?”

I glanced down to Chloe, who was leaning against my leg. I ran my hand through her hair. “Chloe has very speciﬁc ideas on how a master/slave relationship should work. I’ve never told her she has to kneel at my feet. But I’m not going to stop her if she wants to.” I grinned down at her.

“Slaves should be at their master’s feet.” She pretended to pout a bit. “Besides, I like being close to you.”

Crystal stared at her next bite for a while, then appeared to re-notice we were here, and ate it quickly. “Something on your mind?”

She played with her food a moment, preparing an answer. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, master. I just was thinking of Tsu. How we like to cuddle together in her wings.” She looked up at me. “I still love her master, very much. You didn’t change that.”

“I didn’t intend to.”

“I don’t want to betray her. Of course, I can’t disobey you. And, well, this doesn’t feel like I’m betraying her, somehow. But I can’t think of what else to call it.”

“It’s ok. You are trying to make sure she’s happy, after all. And, it isn’t your choice.”

“Yes, master.” She decided to act submissive for a moment, but she smiled. “That does make it easier, somehow.”

“Good. Now, we should have a plan. So we don’t hurt her more than we have to. One thing I can say: Don’t tell her what we are doing. It’ll be a lot easier on her if she doesn’t know what’s going on. In fact, I’ll stay out of sight entirely.”

Both girls nodded. “I wish we had some good way to knock her out.” Crystal said, wistfully.

“Sorry, Techina. I promise I’ll be as gentle as I can be.”

“I don’t have anything either. In theory, a modiﬁed version of my device upstairs could do it, but I don’t even have the parts.”

Crystal bit her lip. “I am a technopath. Give me a day to study the plans, and access to whatever you’ve got, and I might be able to… But we need to do this quickly. I’ve got a stockholders meeting tomorrow morning.” She looked sad.

I reached over the table. “A good idea. But you are right: You’re missing, and we need to make sure we get this done before anyone notices. I’m sure Green Star can knock her out quickly.” Green Star nodded.

“Thanks. Ok, so I call her, and Green Star knocks her out. Then what, exactly?”

“You two strip her and tie her to the bed upstairs, and we’ll give her the same treatment we gave you.” I grinned lecherously at her. “You willing to ‘distract’ her for me?”

She grinned back. “It’ll be my pleasure, master.” She sobered. “Though… I’m still feeling a bit tired, and I don’t have the endurance Green Star does.”

“And I over-worked Green Star on you anyway. You can take turns, make sure no one gets too tired. But she is your spouse. You get ﬁrst priority, if you want it.” This honestly wasn’t out of the goodness of my heart. I ﬁgured Crystal would be better able to distract Sarika, since she knew what Sarika liked.

“Master? Can I make one request?” We turned to Chloe. She turned away and blushed. “Um, do you remember when I said that I had an idea for a ‘slave-super’ costume? I got the stuﬀ for it, so I could show it to you like you asked, and it worked…”

“And you want to show it to me now?” She nodded. I thought a moment. “Show me what you’ve got. Both ways.”

“Yes master.” She half-ran oﬀ, but didn’t disappear. Though she must have changed a super-speed, since she was back in just a moment.

If she couldn’t ﬂy, I’m not sure how long it would have taken her to get to us. I’d heard of ballet-boots, but these were the ﬁrst I’d seen in person. She set down the other side of the room, and tiptoed to the middle. There were black gloves on her hands as well, and locked cuﬀs on both wrists and and ankles. A matching collar was around her neck, and over her head was a seamless black hood. And that was it: All the clothing she wore was from those buckles out.

“You can see in that?”

She nodded, and her speech came out muﬄed. “It’s thin; even without my vision I could see through it.”

“Ok. Let’s see it the other way.”

Crystal’s eyes were riveted to the nude form before us, and she nearly toppled out of the chair as Green Star called her uniform to her. I glanced over, to check to make sure she was ok. “And I thought I had a uniform that was easy to put on.” She tried to joke. “Wow.” That was serious.

“It’s a show, isn’t it?” I turned back to Green Star, to see what that outﬁt had become.

Inside the bindings, apparently the called uniform thought of her as naked. It was the same glowing, revealing, costume as I’d seen before: A cutout over her cunt, and her breasts framed by a star, the rest within a ﬂuid energy cover.

Outside the bindings, however… Her hands were the simplest. The gloves had just changed color, and merged into her hands. It was clear she was wearing thick gloves, but they were part of the uniform. Her feet… Were gone. The pointed ballet shoes became just points, and somehow that was all that was there: two points of a star.

Her head was there. Or at least, there was a green globe where it should be. There was no trace of a face in it at all.

The bindings themselves will all still visible, both as the end of the ‘ﬂuid’ green, and as a darker green band thickly set around each extremity. From the wrists and ankles, there was two tie rings each. From her neck, there were more.

I got up to look at her feet. “Are your feet ok?”

No response.

“Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

“You ok in there? Say something!”

Silence. Then, suddenly, she went back to the transformation pose, and the uniform left.

I managed to notice than she was a bit shorter now.

“You couldn’t hear me?”

Both me and Crystal shook our heads no. “You said something?”

“Yes. And I was nodding. My feet were ﬁne. It’s like they are in some extra-long shoes.”

“So you could see and hear us, but we couldn’t see or hear you.” Crystal stated the obvious.

Chloe just nodded.

“So, you want me to tell you to wear that when you capture Sarika.”

“Please, master?”

What the heck. It would make her happy. “Ok, but make sure you don’t get seen.”

“Of course, master.” She tilted her head. “The dryer is done.”

“Go get the bedroom ready.”

“Yes, master.” She ﬂoat-hobbled oﬀ.

“She’s got issues, doesn’t she?”

I turned back to Crystal. “Yep. She had some sort of fantasy about being controlled by a villain, and apparently I’ve managed to hit all her hot buttons.”

“And her fantasy included betraying her teammates to the villain.”

“So it seems.”

“You’ve created yourself a monster, you know that, right?”

“Yep. She fought it a while; but after a couple of months at ‘standard’ levels she didn’t really have a choice. Once she realized that… Well, she’s been going full tilt. I did make the mistake of using that fantasy a bit.”

“I’m just ﬁnally being able to put things together.” She paused a moment. “What did she mean by ‘someone for you to use until I get the hang of restraining myself’?” I started to answer, but I think my blush did it for me. “Oh. OH.” She started laughing. “Poor guy. You enslave your hot next-door-neighbor and you can’t even have sex with her, or she’d crush you!”

It really wasn’t that funny. “Yeah. So she thought she should get me another toy to play with, instead.” I managed to lace a bit of promise into the words.

That managed to sober her up, and she glanced down at her own nude form. “I really should have a problem with that. And a part of me is going to be very jealous if you decide to use Tsu as one of your toys. But you are master. If that makes you happy, than it is our purpose.” She looked back up at me. “And, I have to admit that given how turned on I am, the idea sounds very welcome. Even though I’m not into males.”

“You’re not into males, and yet you’re aroused by thinking about having sex with me?”

“No, not that. Well, in that it would be obeying you, yes. Thinking about that is arousing. But… Ever since I woke up, I’ve been more aroused than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m surprised I’m not making a mess with how wet I am.”

It ﬁnally clicked. “Oh. Right. I added arousal to your programming, to help make sure you were distracted. I didn’t think about what it would mean afterwards.” I did have a question. “You didn’t have any fantasies about this before, did you?”

She laughed. “You mean like Green Star? No. Me and Tsu played our games, but that wasn’t one of them. I ﬁgured this had to be your doing somehow. I’ve been holding it in, but I can tell you it’s not helping me concentrate.”

“I might be able to do something about that. After we take care of Sarika. Though I might need to adjust the programming a bit before she gets here.”

“That’s up to you. And I realize that I’ll be aﬀected by it as well, if I’m ‘distracting’ her.” She paused. “Come to think of it, Green is probably sublimating that arousal into extending her fantasy, since she knows she can’t have sex with you. She is interested in guys, I know. She’s probably out of her mind trying to be the perfect brainwashed minion.”

That made things make more sense. “Quite possibly.” I spent a moment in thought. “Hmm. I’m not sure I can turn down the arousal: It did help keep you distracted, after all, and I need to make sure she can’t focus to reject the brainwashing. I will have to tone down that jealousy though, and make you at least somewhat interested in me, sexually.” It was more of a mental note than anything else.

“Probably a good idea, if you intend to keep us as your brainwashed sex slaves. Tsubame is superstrong, but not as strong as Green, and I know for a fact she can control it in the midst of passion. So she’ll be useful for you that way, if you want her to be.”

I just looked at her for a moment. “What?” She asked.

“I’m just amazed at how well my device works.”

“You mean that I’m willing to talk about all this?” She paused a moment. “Yeah, you’ve got a point. It just doesn’t feel odd to me, unless I think about it. It just… Is. This is the way the world works.” She shook her head. “I’m really interested in seeing the schematics at some point, if you’ll trust me with them.”

“We’ll work something out.” Chloe decided this was the time to re-enter. “The bedroom is ready, master.”

“Good. Crystal, how long do you think it will take Sarika to get here?”

“Well, since I don’t yet know where ‘here’ is, other than the US… Could be no time at all, or could be an hour or so. If would be longer, she’d take one of our jets.”

“Ok, well then. I’ll get my laptop, and reprogram the device. Chloe, you ﬁll in Crystal on your address, and then Crystal, you call Sarika. From there… Work with the plan. Ready?”

“Ready, master.”

In the end, it turned out that Sarika was fairly close, just by luck. So I barely had time to get back to my house to hide. Chloe came over to tell me that the capture had been successful, and that Techina was busy ‘distracting’ her partner. After a moment’s thought, I told her to change into her regular Green Star uniform, and go get Techina’s stuﬀ. At this point I wasn’t going to worry about anyone else having a tracer on her.

Then I went to work on my device, working on how to increase the power, and to put in a ‘knock out’ mode, mostly to kill time. I might need to build another, at Crystal’s place, or if we ever decided to move, but that was it. And even that would just to make sure that it sunk into my two new captives.

By the time I was done, it was dark outside, and Chloe had made me supper, and I decided checking up on them could wait until Monday. Both of my slave-girls knew that they didn’t need to keep Sarika distracted forever; a few hours would be ﬁne. And they wouldn’t release her until I said so, and that wasn’t planned to be before I got home from work.

Going in to work was a bit surreal. ‘How was your weekend Howard?’ ‘A bit hectic, I brainwashed two superheroines to be my slaves. Yours?’ Ok, obviously I didn’t say that. I mean, I could probably get away with it, as no one would believe me, but… No.

I did mention getting drunk on Saturday though. Just to sound like one of the guys.

I’d actually managed to put my own little harem out of my mind for a bit by mid-afternoon. Focusing on the project I was working on could do that type of thing. Then my phone rang. “Mr. Howard Martel?”

“Speaking.”

“My name is Patricia Ortiz, I’m Ms. Nilsson of Nilsson Technologies’ personal assistant. She’s noticed some of your work, and would like you to head up a new team she’s starting up.”

It takes a good engineer a couple of minutes to switch from ‘engineering’ to ‘deal with people’ mode. My mind went into emergency reboot. “Oh?” That was ﬁller, during the reboot process.

“Yes. We are willing to double your current salary, along with oﬀering the standard full compliment of usual beneﬁts.”

“What would I be working on?”

“Ms. Nilsson is keeping that conﬁdential at the moment, although I’m assured you are familiar with the technologies involved. The team would work directly with Ms. Nilsson, on her cutting-edge projects, as well as giving you freedom to work on some of your own. If you’d like, I can set up a meeting to let you discuss exactly what the job responsibilities would be, although I can say it’s being presented as an ‘idea incubator’ for the company, where you would be pushing the limits of what is possible.”

She was good, I’ll say that. But I could tell she really didn’t know what the ‘new team’ was supposed to be working on. Though it sounded like she really didn’t expect to: She was hired for her people and organization skills, not her technical ones.

On the other hand, I could also see that this was Crystal’s way of dealing with my ‘conﬂict of interest’ problem. She’d created this team speciﬁcally so she could have an excuse to hire me, and let me run wild. Smart girl. “I’ll have to think about it, Ms. Ortiz.” I was relieved I could remember her name. “Would you be able to send me some speciﬁcs?”

“Of course. You have a fax number? Or I can send it via email if you’d prefer.” Mail was obviously too slow.

I gave her my personal email, and thanked her for the call. Then I sat back and let out a low whistle. That was quite the opportunity. Even if it was just taking advantage of one of my slaves.

Then I got back to work, because opportunity or not, this project still needed to get done.

Home. I looked at the whirlwind (if only metaphorical) that was the house next door, and seriously considered pretending that I hadn’t made it home yet.

But that would leave a woman who hadn’t done anything to me — and was one of Earth’s heros to boot — tied up and conﬁned. Best to get this over with. I did make a quick stop to grab a couple of things, then headed over.

Chloe followed me up the stairs, until I entered her bedroom, putting back on the hat I’d left on the hall table.

Crystal and Tsubame were cuddling in the bed. Or at least Crystal was: Tsubame was of course unable to move with her hands and feet tied to the bed, while her white wings were bundled closed. But she looked like she was trying to cuddle.

Crystal saw me ﬁrst. The spark of the weird grin was the only warning I got before she nudged her partner, and pointed at me. “Like your new master?” She asked the bound girl.

We both laughed, to Sarika’s befuddlement. “Hi there. How are you doing?”

She looked back and forth between me and her spouse, lying beside her for a moment, before ending up locked on me. “Um… I’m a bit sore and ready to be let go now?”

“And why are you ready to be let go?”

“Because I know that I exist to serve you? And that I love you?” She looked puzzled. “And that I don’t even know where this is coming from?”

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Techina. “You’d told us not to tell her what was being done. So I didn’t mention you.”

“What have you been talking about?”

She blushed. “Um, we haven’t been doing much talking… You did leave the arousal in, master.”

“Point. Well, Sarika, or should I call you Tsubame; are you ready to promise to never ﬁght or resist my control over you?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Let her up.”

That took only a minute or so, and then Tsubame sat up and stretched her wings as much as she could indoors. They were impressive, up close. Pure white, and very neat and ﬁne, tapering to delicate points. The wings of a swift, or swallow.

I’ll admit, I was staring. “You can touch them if you like.” I snapped back to her face. “People always ask to touch them.”

“And she rarely lets them.” This was Crystal.

Tsubame glared at her, then turned to me. “They always want to pull on the feathers. It hurts, and can damage them.”

I forced down a tilted grin. “Later. I’ll have plenty of chances. So. What questions do you want answered ﬁrst?”

She looked around the room. Only I was really dressed. She seemed to recognize Chloe, but may not have been sure. “ ‘What’s going on?’ really seems to cover the rest.”

“True enough. My name is Howard Martel. Green Star here,” I gestured, and Sarika nodded at the conﬁrmation, “has dubbed me ‘The Mental Mechanic’. Which is accurate enough: I have developed a device capable of rewriting the mind on a physical level. End result, is that I have a brainwashing machine. It can write thoughts into your head. It takes some time, and depending on the exposure it can wear oﬀ sometimes, but after nearly a day at the current power level, it should be permanent. Or the next thing to it.” I waited to see if she got that.

She did. “So you’ve brainwashed me. All three of us.”

“Yep. I started with my next-door neighbor,” Chloe bowed, “and she wanted to prove how good a slave she was by recruiting for me. Her ﬁrst choice was Crystal. To keep that from being a problem, we decided to grab the most important person in her life: You.”

“So, when Crystal called for pickup, you’d already brainwashed her, and Chloe jumped me, and the two of them tied me up in here. And that was…”

“About a day ago.”

“It didn’t feel that long.” She sat and thought a moment. My eyes drifted down to her second most obvious feature: Her bustline. “They are real, but they won’t feel quite right. They are mostly muscle.”

“Hmm?” I went back to her face.

“My breasts. They are real, but part of the reason they are so big is that they hide some of my ﬂight muscles. So they feel a bit odd. Or so I’m told.” She glanced at her spouse, who blushed.

“We’ll deal with that later.” Was all I could think of to say.

In the silence, she ﬁnally asked another question. “Did you put in something speciﬁc, or why am I not freaking out by this? Or ﬁghting it? Or something. I mean… I’ve never wanted to be a slave. That I can remember.”

“Best guess… Well, two things. First oﬀ, your whole mind has literally reformed around the idea that you exist to serve me. A thought counter to that just isn’t possible, really. Secondly, you promised to not ﬁght my control. That’s an order you are obeying, and you can’t disobey my orders.”

“So that’s why you make everyone say that.” That was Chloe, who looked sheepish at the interruption. “Sorry, Master.”

“Yes, that’s why.” I turned back to Tsubame. “So, any other questions?”

She thought a moment. “I’m sure I’ll have some master, but… For now, what do you want from me?”

“Right now… I’m sure you’re thirsty, hungry, stink, and could use the restroom. Well, the restroom is right there, and once you’ve cleaned up and taken a shower, we’ll have supper downstairs. Then we can talk further.”

She looked a bit stunned. “Thank you master.”

Both Chloe and Crystal were ﬁt, but Tsubame was something else. I could watch the muscles play under her skin as she moved, and every move was precise and even. No wasted eﬀort, but obviously there was plenty of power available.

She stumbled a bit, walking through the doorway. “Oh, that’s right, sorry. Given the power level we ran things at, you’ll notice when you move out of the brainwashing ﬁeld. The brainwashing itself will hold though.”

She looked at us, and then tried her head in and out of the doorway a few times. “I didn’t realize how much it was doing. Wow.”

“Thank you. I’m rather proud of the design.” Hey, it had worked, right? I was proud of the design.

“You should be, master.” And she shut the door.

I turned back to the two other girls. “Chloe; go start making supper for all four of us.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And speaking of my design… Crystal, do you have your helmet with you?”

“Yes, Master. Thank you for having Green Star go get it for me. It meant I could get back to my company in time for meetings this morning, and then get back here in the afternoon.

“Speaking of that, I got a call from a Patricia Ortiz, who claimed to be your personal secretary.”

“You did? Wow, she’s even better than I’d thought.” She caught me looking at her. “Look, as nice as this house is, I’ve got a better one, and you did seem to worry about conﬂicts of interest. This way you’ll never have to worry about any of that, and I can give you all the money you want without causing my accountants problems. Besides, you are a good engineer. Even if you hadn’t created this absolutely revolutionary device that you’ve used on us, I looked up some of your other work. It’s good.”

“And you did all this and helped brainwash Sarika?”

She blushed. “I’ve had to learn to multi-task. Besides, I am a supergenius technopath.” She pretended to be modest. It was cute.

“So, why didn’t you run this idea past me yourself?”

“I… It needs to be a business transaction. And I wanted someone who could talk you into it, if you were hesitant at ﬁrst. I can’t do that, Master.”

“Fair enough. So, what’s your plan?”

She took a deep breath. “The idea was to move you and Green Star, as soon as you are ready, into my house. There’s space; lots of it. And it’s a bit more private. As for the job: It’s oﬃcially a ‘speculative technology’ group: You get to tinker with whatever you like, and if we decide there is something worth trying to turn into a marketable product, good. Otherwise, we get to develop and learn about new technologies. You’d report directly to me. In reality… You get to tinker with whatever you like, and if you want to create something useful, ﬁne. As for ‘reporting to me’… Well, I assume it’d be the other way around.”

“So you keep running the company, and I get to play with whatever toys I want?”

“That’s the idea.” She was nervous. “Unless you really want to run the company…”

Ah. “No, you can keep it. It sounds like a good plan. I might want to redecorate your place…” The last was just to watch her squirm.

It didn’t work. “Of course. Whatever you want.”

I pretended to think it over. “Well, I’ll talk to your personal assistant tomorrow. I’ll tell her what I decide.” That got her squirming. Heh. “In the meantime… Go get your helmet.”

She ran oﬀ, and I got the plans from where I’d stashed them, then waited for her to come back. It didn’t take long.

I’ll admit I wanted to examine that helmet for myself. I mean, I’d seen pictures of it on TV. Everyone knew some of what it could do, but at the same time, I suspected it could do so much more… And it was about to gain another function. “Here’s the plans for my device. I want you to miniaturize it, and put a version in your helmet. Facing inward.”

Her eyes widened as they looked at me. “So every time I put on my helmet, you are programming me…”

“Exactly.” I had added in a command that they’d like being programmed. It’d seemed to be a good security policy.

“Of course, Master. Would you like me to put a set into Sarika’s helmet as well?”

“It’s not just a plain helmet?”

“It was, until she started going out with me… I made some improvements.”

“I’ll bet. Yes, that’s a good idea. Just make sure you tell her what you’ve done.” I held her eyes in mine for that.

She got it. “Yes Master. We’ll both know we are yours every time we put our helmets on.”

I grinned. “Good. Get to work. And if you have any ideas on how to improve my design, tell me.”

“Yes, Master.”

Supper was unusual, but not really all that interesting. Crystal was lost in thought, Tsubame was starving, and trying to get her bearings, and Chloe wanted to eat out of a bowl, after serving the rest of us. I saw no reason to stop her.

I took Crystal and Tsubame back to my place for the night. That was fun. Tsubame’s wings were warmer than I’d have thought: wrapped around the three of us, you could nearly feel the blood pumping through them. They also restricted her in bed. There just weren’t all that many ways to arrange a set of wings that size.

Crystal, on the other hand, could arrange herself however she wished, just about. And had the imagination to come up with ideas I wouldn’t have.

I was still tired in the morning, but it was a diﬀerent tired.

Technia did have something for me in the morning, when I kissed them farewell. “By the way master, I think I can work around the overpower-scatterbrain eﬀect.”

“Really? I’ll have to take a look at your ideas, later. Did you get it installed?”

She blushed. “Yes. Our helmets I can modify easily. I programmed in ‘obey Master’, for now.”

“You’ll have to show me how to change the programming. Later. Right now, we all need to get to work.”